I was thinking today, I've more or less been into toys and TF's consistantly since I was about 4 - 5 years old and I'm now 28 but will my interest ever leave me or will the compulsion to collect and detach from the community ever be so great I take up a pipe and slippers ???

What do you guys think? are we still going to be here in another 20 years time

Well, similarly, I've been into TFs non-stop from the age of seven (31 now), with no signs of letting up. And if TFs are still selling in another 20 years, I have little doubt they'll still be bringin' 'em out. Be daft not to. All it really takes is consistently good designs and characters, and steady advances in toy tech. Bit like we've been getting for the last 20-odd, really.

I don't know if it will ever end for me, but the spending got definitely cut back when I got married. (That's also when the bots stopped being displayed at home.) I imagine when we have kids, the spending will go down even further. However, I have become much more adept at finding better deals on Transformers so that I get more for my money.

The series I've really loved like G1, Beast Wars, Animated, and some of the Spotlight stories will always be with me, so in a way it's always kind of going to be there.

How actively I'm looking for new stuff really depends on how appealing it is for me. Sort of put Transformers off to the side after Beast Wars because things didn't work for me after that and really only started getting actively involved again toward the end of Cyberton and with the release of the Classics line. Almost dropped out again after the live action movie, but then Animated injected the fun back in for me.

I don't know... I imagine I'll keep going for awhile really... at least as long as Hasbro keeps making lines that appeal to me. Heck, even being married hasn't slowed my collecting any (it helps that my wife has her own hobbies... particularly ABJD which are ungodly expensive even compared to most limited Transformers) and the only real problem has been figuring out where to display all her stuff and display all my stuff because there's just so much of it.

As for the end of the hobby, when/if it ever feels the time to put it to rest then I will. And I'll be content enough to have the stuff I own and the memories of the enjoyment these fictional robots have brought me.

I highly doubt that I'll ever not be into Transformers in one way or another, but as far as collecting goes I'm more or less done with it. There's not a lot of new stuff coming out that has me interested in it. I don't like the look of the new Animated line, but I love the show. Classics 2.0 I'll more than likely pick up only if we have more new molds than repaints. As for the movie toys coming out next year I'll probably pass on it if they look anything like the first ones did. I just don't like the bot modes of the line, but the alt modes are very nice.